By David Crystal

New from Cambridge University Press!

By Peter Mark Roget

This book "supplies a vocabulary of English words and idiomatic phrases 'arranged … according to the ideas which they express'. The thesaurus, continually expanded and updated, has always remained in print, but this reissued first edition shows the impressive breadth of Roget's own knowledge and interests."

Book Information

This book introduces undergraduates to the concepts, terminology andrepresentations needed for an understanding of how English is pronouncedaround the world. Assuming no prior knowledge, the book guides readersthrough the vocal tract and explains how sounds of speech are made. Twomain forms of representation are used: phonetic transcription and simpleacoustic data. As far as possible, the book is based onnaturally-occurring, conversational speech so that readers are familiarwith the details of everyday talk (and not just the careful pronunciationsrepresented in dictionaries).

Examples are taken from around the English-speaking world, including NorthAmerica, Australia, New Zealand and varieties of British English.Introductory chapters cover the basic phonetic framework, while laterchapters discuss groups of sounds in more detail. The book takes anopen-minded approach to what sounds of English might be significant formaking meaning, and highlights the significance of word meaning,morphology, sociolinguistics and conversational interaction in phoneticanalysis

Features:

*Introductory text assuming no prior knowledge of phonetics*Informed by up to date research on naturally occurring conversational English*Focuses on phonetics as a skill and encourages the reader to reflect ontheir own speech*Covers a range of forms of phonetic representation.